No.: NX59308
Name: Francis 'Frank' Joseph Baker
Rank: Sargeant
Unit: 2/20 Battalion
Date & Place of Birth: 19/02/1920, Paddington, Sydney
Date & Place of Enlistment: 22/07/1940, Paddington, Sydney
Places of Captivity: Singapore, Thailand, Japan

Listen to Frank Baker's story

Frank Baker arrived in Singapore aboard the Queen Mary on February 18, 1941. He fought with the 2/20th Division in Malaya until the Fall of Singapore, at which point he was marched to Selarang Barracks, where he worked on the Singapore wharves. He was then taken as part of D Force to work on the Burma-Thailand Railway as an orderly, until the railway's completion. After a brief move to Tamawang, he was later sent to Japan aboard a ship christened by the men as 'Byoki Maru' (sick ship). He spent 70 days at sea before reaching Moji on September 6, 1944. Frank was transported by train and boat to Yamani on the island of Shokoku and then to a camp at Niihama. There he remained for the duration of the war, working in Japanese copper mines.

No.: NX51361
Name: Frank Arthur Ernest Elworthy
Rank: Lance Corporal
Unit: HQ 22nd Brigade
Date & Place of Birth: 20/05/1909, Gundagai, Sydney
Date & Place of Enlistment: 26/06/1940, Paddington, Sydney
Places of Captivity: Singapore, Thailand, Burma, Japan (Iizouka)

Frank Elworthy enlisted at the age of 31 in 1940. Frank served with the 22nd Brigade Headquarters (Intelligence) in Singapore until its fall in February 1942 when he was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was transported to Fukuoka Camp No.22 in Japan, finally arriving there in January 1945, where he remained until the Japanese surrender. He was sent on working parties in the coal mines, and on the 23rd of August 1945 he received serious head injuries whilst working in a mine from a dynamite blast, but was soon sent back to work.

Douglas Neville Ricketts enlisted in the 18th Battalion at the age of 21. He embarked from Sydney aboard the Queen Mary (HMT QX) on the 4th of February 1941, and arived in Singapore 2 weeks later. Douglas served in Malaya as an anti-aircraft gunner until the fall of Singapore when he was captured and taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was recorded as a Prisoner of War on the 24th of November 1942 in Korea, imprisoned at Jinsen, Keijo, and Konan Prisoner of War Camps. The majority of his time was spent at Keijo, during which time he wrote several love letters home to his then fiance, later wife, Katherine, and kept a journal of his, and his fellow prisoners', thoughts and experiences.